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gaijinalways
Joined: 29 Nov 2005 Posts: 2279
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Posted: Tue Dec 12, 2006 2:23 am Post subject: |
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Overall, I prefer living abroad too. There were so many reasons, I guess the biggest was that I just plain liked it, not to do with the money or the work or anything else. It was exciting and FUN. I like being a foreigner, I loved the travel. |
I understand the feeling, though I think the honeymoon stage is wearing off for me.
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I own my own home (no mortgage) which is much bigger than anything I could have afforded in the places I had lived. |
I hear you. The prices in the UK have skyrocketed, and Japan has never been cheap. As to having no mortgage, cheers, wish my wife and I could do that . |
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Gordon

Joined: 28 Jan 2003 Posts: 5309 Location: Japan
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Posted: Tue Dec 12, 2006 2:25 am Post subject: |
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moot point wrote: |
What? You're having another child, Gordon! How many does this make? |
3 |
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moot point
Joined: 22 Feb 2005 Posts: 441
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Posted: Tue Dec 12, 2006 2:48 am Post subject: |
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Good luck. Send your wife our best wishes |
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Sherri
Joined: 23 Jan 2003 Posts: 749 Location: The Big Island, Hawaii
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Posted: Tue Dec 12, 2006 3:07 am Post subject: |
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A big congratulations to you and your family Gordon! You should have a wonderful Christmas! Three children--you and your wife have my respect. I think Japan is a great place to have kids. I was very happy with the midwives and care I got there.
Sherri |
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Gordon

Joined: 28 Jan 2003 Posts: 5309 Location: Japan
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Posted: Tue Dec 12, 2006 7:21 am Post subject: |
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Thanks contractions are getting closer. Hospital visit #3 in 4 days is soon, this better be our last trip.-... |
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gaijinalways
Joined: 29 Nov 2005 Posts: 2279
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Posted: Tue Dec 12, 2006 10:26 am Post subject: |
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Good luck Gordan, one cat is all I can handle at the moment (though I am sometimes a big kid ). |
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madison01
Joined: 01 Sep 2006 Posts: 40
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Posted: Tue Dec 12, 2006 11:05 am Post subject: |
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The words "career" and "Tefl Teacher" do not go together in any way shape or form.
I started in Tefl in 1999 and quickly realised I was never going to earn enough money as a teacher no matter how many years experience I had or how many pieces of paper I studied for.
Every school out there is a business, no matter who the owner (Tefl teacher, businessman, rip-off artist) the only thing they are interested in is the bottom line. Paying an experienced teacher more than a newly qualified teacher doesn't make sense to your average school owner and, unfortunately, the way that tefl is heading never will.
The only way is "Up"; if you stay in a teaching role you'll hit a wage ceiling or have to constantly move onto new countries where the market isn't saturated by teachers and schools which may, for a few years, offer a good deal until they too realise they can draft in hundreds of teachers on a daily basis for half the price.
This isn't a regulated business, as such, the British Council or local equivalents may claim to be keeping standards high for the students and the teachers, however, in my experience, that simply isn't true.
The only way to build a decent career out of tefl is to move up the ladder, DoS, or into related fields, publishing, training etc. The classroom is, not to put too fine a point on it, the frontline, teachers are cannon fodder for the officers back at the mess.
I hope no-one gets annoyed at me about my attitude but I really want to post this as a reality check. You may believe that your work should be valued, and that the Tefl trade should be better regualted and better salaried, but the truth is if it was then there would be less money to be made, fewer schools, less jobs and the salaries would still be kept as low as regulation would allow because the competition for jobs would be higher.
Get out of the classroom, get into an office. It is the only way to use your experience to gat a decent paycheck, and even then you'll have to work ridiculously hard. |
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Sheikh Inal Ovar

Joined: 04 Dec 2005 Posts: 1208 Location: Melo Drama School
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Posted: Tue Dec 12, 2006 2:24 pm Post subject: |
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madison01 wrote: |
The classroom is, not to put too fine a point on it, the frontline, teachers are cannon fodder for the officers back at the mess.
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That's nice coming from a DoS ... do your staff read this board! |
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zorro (2)

Joined: 03 Sep 2004 Posts: 47 Location: Newcastle, England
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Posted: Tue Dec 12, 2006 2:42 pm Post subject: |
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The point of view of teaching with a masters seems to be under represented here. I agree with most of the comments here about ESL/EFL teaching being a dead end, but I think that this only counts for those who don't choose to take the next step and do a masters or a DELTA. People want to be taught English in a huge array of establishments around the world (language schools, universities etc) and I want to teach it to them. If I am qualified to do this and can provide my students with a good understanding of English and continually try to improve myself as a teacher, then is this not me undertaking a career?
Improving yourself as a teacher by getting more qualifications and understanding your subject with more depth surely justifies ESL/EFL teaching as a career. |
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madison01
Joined: 01 Sep 2006 Posts: 40
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Posted: Tue Dec 12, 2006 3:02 pm Post subject: |
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madison01 wrote: |
The classroom is, not to put too fine a point on it, the frontline, teachers are cannon fodder for the officers back at the mess.
I hope no-one gets annoyed at me about my attitude but I really want to post this as a reality check. . |
As far as I'm aware 2 or 3 members of my staff read and post on these boards. The reason I hoped no-one would get annoyed with this attitude is that I made my move away from the classroom as soon as I realised that whatever I did, no matter how hard I worked, irrespective of how good a teacher I became, my paymasters would never remunerate me for it. I'm merely pointing out a reality.
You may not like the attitude and that's fair enough, is is after all only my opinion, but being a DofS for over 3 years now, working with other DofSs and all of us under pressure to put teachers into classrooms for the most economical cost, more experienced teachers are a luxury we are generally not allowed to afford.
There are schools who pay well, but they are few and far between, and in a business with massive competition, and school owners who want to buy a Jag and a holiday home in France they'll probably stay few and far between. |
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madison01
Joined: 01 Sep 2006 Posts: 40
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Posted: Tue Dec 12, 2006 3:09 pm Post subject: |
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[quote="zorro (2)"Improving yourself as a teacher by getting more qualifications and understanding your subject with more depth surely justifies ESL/EFL teaching as a career.[/quote]
I agree with you on this, to a point. Though, as you have read from my previous post, to me taking the DELTA OR MA is about giving yourself opitons outside of the classroom. If money wasn't an issue to me, the taking the DELTA would have been about being a better teacher. However, my marriage, the extortionate prices of houses in the UK, the need for a pension and the increasing discussions concerning children entering our lives meant that staying in the classroom was not an option, for me. |
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Sheikh Inal Ovar

Joined: 04 Dec 2005 Posts: 1208 Location: Melo Drama School
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Posted: Tue Dec 12, 2006 3:40 pm Post subject: |
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madison01 wrote: |
The reason I hoped no-one would get annoyed with this attitude is that I made my move away from the classroom as soon as I realised that whatever I did, no matter how hard I worked, irrespective of how good a teacher I became, my paymasters would never remunerate me for it. I'm merely pointing out a reality.
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annoyed ? or amused ? ... don't you see the self-aggrandizing aspect of your opinion ... you the officer ... you underlings the expendable waste ...
... and this from a DoS ... in the Gulf most teachers wouldn't be willing to take the pay cut that becoming a DoS would require ... |
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DainaJ
Joined: 26 Jul 2006 Posts: 62
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Posted: Tue Dec 12, 2006 3:43 pm Post subject: |
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Miyazaki wrote: |
No pension, though, for most TEFL'ers. This is a problem Most EFL jobs won't help you for your later years. So EFL teachers need to take care of themselves. |
Workers in every industry need to take care of themselves, in the US at least (although I think Europe is heading this way, too). Think about all the people here in the US who have had their pensions and health insurance pulled out from under them by supposedly stable employers. This used to be a concern only for the self-employed, but no longer.
I also agree with White_Elephant's description of prices. Since our family has been back in the US (as of 2001), gas prices have tripled, heating has about doubled and our private health insurance premium (self-employed here) has doubled. Food prices and the price of other goods eventually go up as gas goes up.
It seems to me that TEFL is no different than any other career. You need to constantly be thinking one step ahead, updating your skills and education, learning new technologies, networking and keeping your eyes open for new opportunities. Nothing unique there. |
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madison01
Joined: 01 Sep 2006 Posts: 40
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Posted: Tue Dec 12, 2006 4:19 pm Post subject: |
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[annoyed ? or amused ? ... don't you see the self-aggrandizing aspect of your opinion ... you the officer ... you underlings the expendable waste ...
As a DofS in the UK I still teach about 12 to 15 hours a week. So, seeing the teachers as underlings would give me a strange inferiority complex.
I'm merely trying to point out that the "School Owners" see teachers as an expendable commodity.
As for your comment about taking a pay cut to be a DofS, In the UK DofS salaries aren't brilliant, but they are regular and trying to get a mortgage depends on a regular sum. |
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Jizzo T. Clown

Joined: 28 Apr 2005 Posts: 668 Location: performing in a classroom near you!
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Posted: Tue Dec 12, 2006 4:47 pm Post subject: |
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madison01 wrote: |
to me taking the DELTA OR MA is about giving yourself opitons outside of the classroom. |
Or to give yourself better classroom options! I know of some schools that will hire you on as head teacher if you renew your contract because the turnover rate is so high. If you renew twice, you may just be in line for a DoS position, so in this case advanced qualifications aren't that necessary (not as necessary as seniority, anyway), if you can stomach the work. |
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